Ernest
Oppenheimer, however angry he may have been, recognized that he was
being conciliated, and replied to Lord Bessborough in a friendly cable
four days later:
I
deeply appreciate the terms of your cable of 27 May and the attitude
adopted by Rothschilds. This is the first encouragement I have received
in my endeavour to deal with the very difficult alluvial problem. I
agree with the contents of your message and will act on the lines
suggested.
On 3 June 1927 Louis wrote to Ernest Oppenheimer summing up the situation:
The
important thing is to post you about my meeting at Rothschilds; after
some discussion on the whole future, Lionel Rothschild said that, after
consulting the big Paris shareholders through Bessborough and their
Paris house, they agreed to the principles of the ideas put forward by
you, but asked as a compromise that you should modify your proposals
and fall in with their suggestion of forming a separate company, of
which, of course, as suggested, you would be chairman and they in turn
would waive their objections to a member of the Syndicate being
chairman of De Beers in your favour. There then followed a long
discussion, everyone present, that is Viallate, Bessborough, Joel being
asked to agree to you as chairman. Joel said that he was put in an
awkward position, he agreed that you would be the right man for the
chair of De Beers, but said that he was in a very delicate position
vis-a-vis Harris, as you would appreciate. Finally he said that he was
quite ready to support your claim to the chair in due course. He then
went into the question of how the board would vote and it became fairly
clear that a few, whom I need not mention, would oppose. Eventually, it
was decided to leave matters in abeyance.
The
next day I had lunch with Bessborough at De Beers and my two cables
were the outcome of my talk with him. He told me that on no account
would he or Rothschilds support any other member of the Syndicate for
the De Beers chair. Both my cables were approved by Joel, Bessborough
and Rothschilds, and copies of all cables including these two were
given by me to Morgans, who in every way supported us and are a great
help with Rothschilds. In framing any scheme you must remember that,
before anything final is done, you must have definite assurance as to
De Beers policy and chair and, of course, this will be my attitude. I
do not on any account wish you to think that I want you to give up your
powerful hand and just trust to luck.
The importance of this communication, apart from the comfort which it must have given him as to his own future position, lay in
prepared
to submit proposal amended in the light of views already interchanged.
Suggest further for your consideration that proposal should be
submitted direct to the board or alternatively to us in London for
communication to the board.'
